March 14, 2023
Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, a veteran geroscientist, and a serial entrepreneur, George Church hardly needs an introduction. While we are always happy to discuss the present and future of geroscience with him, this interview focuses on the two gene therapy papers that he recently co-authored, which drew a lot of attention due...
February 21, 2022
In Nature Cell Biology, a team of researchers has presented a current review of telomeres and how they relate to aging, reflecting modern research into a decades-old topic. Why We Age: Telomere AttritionTelomeres are DNA regions located at the ends of a chromosome. Their normal length is 8-10 thousand base pairs, yet they consist of...
January 21, 2022
Scientists publishing in Nature Aging have shown that telomerase reverse transcriptase slows neurodegeneration but not due to its telomere-building activity [1]. Chromosomes' bodyguards Why We Age: Telomere AttritionTelomeres are DNA regions located at the ends of a chromosome. Their normal length is 8-10 thousand base pairs, yet they consist of repetitions of a single sequence:...
November 08, 2021
Research published in Circulation has shown that mitochondrial, but not nuclear, telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) protects against damage caused by heart attacks in a murine model. A non-canonical role While TERT's name comes from its main function, the protection of telomere length in the cellular nucleus, the researchers make it clear that TERT has other...
July 13, 2021
A new study published in Aging has shown a link between a reduction in telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), the gene that allows for telomere maintenance, and the development of myofibroblasts, cells that are a part of organ fibrosis. It also documents the link between telomere attrition and cellular senescence, two of the hallmarks of aging....
March 25, 2021
A team of researchers led by Dr. Maria Blasco of the Spanish National Cancer Research Center has shown that shorter telomeres make mice more susceptible to kidney fibrosis [1]. The new study not only clearly demonstrates this link but also provides mouse models which can be used to study – and perhaps eventually address –...
